US-based Spot Bitcoin (Bitcoin) Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded cumulative outflows of $4.3 million on Thursday, extending their withdrawal period for four days ahead of a mining reward halving that was seen as bullish.
Preliminary data published by Farside Investors shows that since April 12, ETFs have seen net outflows totaling more than $319 million, with Grayscale’s GBTC accounting for the majority of withdrawals. It has been shown.
For example, Thursday saw significant outflow losses of $90 million in GBTC alone, which were partially offset by inflows into Fidelity’s FBTC and BlackRock’s IBIT.
The Grayscale ETF has been losing money since day one for several reasons, including the fund’s relatively expensive fee structure. So while GBTC outflows may not be a cause for concern, the recent slowdown in inflows to other ETFs may be.
BlackRock’s IBIT raised just $18.8 million on Thursday, down 93% from its April 5 monthly high of $308.8 million.
“Key liquidity drivers such as stablecoin growth and US-listed Bitcoin ETF inflows have slowed as we have noted for several weeks. ETF inflows peaked on March 12th and recently We have seen four consecutive days of net outflows. U.S.-listed Bitcoin ETFs appear to be saturated as net inflows have not increased even as Bitcoin prices have fallen by 10-15%.” said in an early Friday morning market update.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $64,700, down more than 13% from last month’s all-time high of more than $73,500, according to data from CoinDesk.
“Geopolitical risk in the Middle East may have been an event that qualified Bitcoin for allocation, but the price fell instead of rising. This is the real test for Bitcoin to establish itself as a risk-off asset. Unfortunately, Bitcoin has somewhat failed as the price has “stagnated and been sold off,” Matrixport added.
Late Friday, the Bitcoin blockchain will halve its coin output per block from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, reducing the pace of supply expansion by 50%. Historically, halvings have heralded big rallies, but the size and duration of uptrends have been inconsistent.
The consensus in the crypto community is that the impending halving will put cryptocurrencies on a long-term bullish path. However, multiple observers, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, suggested otherwise, with subsequent indications that further price correction could occur after the halving.
